List of Bamboo Blade characters
This is a list of characters from the manga and anime Bamboo Blade. Many of the surnames are taken from various winners of the All Japan Kendo Championships. Muroe High School ; : :Also known as "Kojirō", he is the kendo instructor, and also a teacher of politics and economics, at Muroe High School. He is perpetually impoverished and lives from paycheck to paycheck, often taking handouts of food from his students. He is offered the chance of a lifetime from an old senpai -- a year's supply of sushi if his female kendo team can beat his senpai's in a practice tournament. This inspires Kojirō to put an effort into training his team, much to the delight of his most dedicated student, Kirino Chiba. The only person who knows the real reason for Kojirō's inspiration is Yūji Nakata, who calls him "pathetic". Kojirō's parents own a convenience store, but it is revealed that they used to own a store that sold sake. Kojirō's parents look young for their age, and in his mother's case, act young (she makes a hobby of collecting cute things). Despite Kojirō's poverty, he somehow owns and maintains a high-performance car. In high school, he was a member of the kendo club, and at that time he defeated his senpai, Kenzaburō, at a tournament to win a trophy. Though he has little affinity for the trophy itself, he cherishes the memory of his victory over Kenzaburō -- though he told Kenzaburō his victory was due to luck, he personally believes he won was because he was stronger than his senpai. ; : :Tamaki Kawazoe is a first year high school student who is nicknamed "Tama-chan" for short. Despite being a kendo prodigy, she does not see it as a hobby, but rather just as a chore honed at her home, which happens to be a kendo dojo led by her father. She refuses to join the school's Kendo Club because she thinks it is unnecessary, but temporarily becomes a member in order to fight off a bully. She despises injustice due to her overdeveloped sense of righteousness and fair play inspired from watching tokusatsu (Her favorite being Blade Braver, a show within a show) as a child. She remains a big anime and tokusatsu fan despite her age. At first she is very shy and unsociable, but after holding a part-time job at Miyako's acquaintance's store she begins to overcome her shyness and open up to her teammates more often. Kirino and Sayako (and for that matter, most girls in the story) find her very cute, often putting Tamaki's hair up in ponytails or making her fight in kendo matches just because they want to see her fight. She knows Yūji before the series's beginning, and has been called "Tama-chan" by him since their childhood (although she does not like the nickname very much, since it makes her seem childish). She is described as being the strength of the group by Kojirō. Tamaki lost for the very first time in the Kanto High School Kendo Tournament to Rin, Tamaki's arch-rival stemming from the Blade Braver series. Her loss was partly because Rin used a stance which reminded her of her late mother causing her to lose focus and concentration temporarily. :She plays the position of General (Taishou) in the competition. ; : :Kirino Chiba is a second year high school student, and the captain of the kendo club. Energetic and enthusiastic, she dreams of leading the team to the nationals. Her family owns a deli named "Chiba Deli". Kirino is very happy that Kojirō has finally begun to put more effort into training his kendo team, but she is oblivious to the real reason that her teacher has suddenly begun to train the team so enthusiastically. She is proud that she is the captain of the kendo club and is more responsible than she appears (i.e., picking up the shinai when the other members leave them lying around on the floor, chiding the other members for not picking up after themselves, etc.). Kirino seems to find Tamaki quite adorable, as she and Sayako will often treat Tamaki as a "little sister" type (i.e., playing with Tamaki's hair, not listening to her kendo lectures, making Tamaki fight merely because she wants to see her fight, etc.). Despite that, however, she has great confidence in Tamaki. She is described as being the heart of the group by Kojirō. She also shows a strong emotional attachment to Kojirō as displayed in the last anime episode when he comes back as the club's instructor. :She plays the position of Second-in-Command (Fukushou) in the competition. ; : :Miyako Miyazaki is a first year high school student nicknamed "Miya-Miya". She is introduced as a very pretty and friendly girl, and to the surprise of many, the girlfriend of Danjūrō. However, in reality, she possesses a very dark and sadistic personality, but hides it in order to be together with Danjūrō. (In the manga she also smokes in school and hangs out with two girls that are possibly delinquents, but is not seen doing so in the anime) When Miyako shows her more sadistic side, she is surrounded by a black aura and acts in a rather eerie and cruel manner, but she instantly switches back to her friendly façade when others are approaching or calling her name. Having only joined the Kendo Club because Danjūrō was in it, she initially finds it boring, but would later enjoy it after realizing she likes to hit people. She has rather quick and powerful strikes, but in the beginning of the series she does not use any other moves other than attempting to strike her opponents in the head (that is, in the anime). In one episode of the anime, however, Miyako was shown to strike at the other areas on her opponent, although none of the strikes counted due to incorrect posture. She is very afraid of her middle school classmate, Reimi Odajima, due to a love relationship incident which got Reimi stalking her ever since. As the series goes on, her kendo skills begins to improve tremendously and she finally managed to score a kote point against Azuma in the 22 episode. :She plays the position of Second-Vanguard (Jihô) in the competition. ; : :Sayako Kuwahara is a second year high school student who is described as being random and spontaneous, often changing her interests and goals. During her first year, she joins the Kendo Club, but would sometimes disappear for short periods of time, claiming to quit. She and Kirino have known each other since elementary school, and Kirino often calls her "Saya". She is one of the tallest members on the team, which others poke fun at by "mistakenly" calling her a boy. In the storyline, she was seen to improve her footwork tremendously after a brief teaching session from Tamaki. Sayako, like Kirino, thinks that Tamaki is cute, as she and Kirino will sometimes do silly things to Tamaki (i.e., playing with Tamaki's hair, not listening to her kendo lectures, making Tamaki fight merely because she wants to see her fight, etc.). She is rather pessimistic, and always claims to pursue death the moment she fails at something. In the anime, her writer's hobby is seen when telling stories, like explaining why Asuma quit kendo in a dramatic fashion (although her friends gave her three points since they found her "story" uninteresting). :She plays the position of Center (Chûken) in the competition. ; : :Satori Azuma, a first-year high school student (that is, in the anime), is the fifth and the last person to join the Kendo Club. She is very talented in kendo. In fact, Satori is the second strongest in the club, with Tamaki being the strongest. However, she is very bad with her studies despite her diligence, which is why she decided to quit kendo after middle school--in order to concentrate on her studies. It is revealed her glasses are fake; she thought she would get smarter by wearing them. Because she is rather naïve, she is tricked by Miyako Miyazaki into joining the club, thinking that Kendo will help her improve her studies. Satori is comically clumsy, as demonstrated in the ending sequences and some of the previews in the anime. :She plays the position of Vanguard (Senpou) in the competition. ; : :Yūji Nakata is a kind, cheerful, and helpful first year student who joins the Kendo Club. He was a member of his junior high school's kendo club and had also attended the Kawazoe Dojo. He had reached the top eight in the prefectural games during junior high. In the Q&A of the manga, Tamaki asserts that he is stronger than Toyama. He is almost on par with Tamaki in skill, and he has defeated Satori Azuma once. Yūji has used kendo to scare away some gangsters, although he panicked after the gangsters had run off. He is also the only person who knows of Kojirō's true reason for training his kendo team with more gusto than before. He also possesses considerable academic skill as he scored fourth out of all the Freshman on the regional exams. ; : :Also known as Dan-kun, Danjūrō Eiga is a round and plain-faced first year who joins the Kendo Club with Yūji. He originally wanted to join the Ping Pong Club, but there was no such club in the school. He shocks Yūji and Kojirō when he brings his pretty girlfriend Miyako to join the club. While he finds the basic training to be "boring" (possibly because he wants to impress Miyako), he is rather proficient in scorekeeping, as shown in one episode of the anime. While he generally comes off as rather dim-witted, it appears he is perceptive to the character Miyako doesn't want him to see. In Episode 11, he was hinted to also have his own "dark side" during a staring contest he had with Kojirō, although his "black mode" was subtler than Miyako's "black mode" and his aura only showed in his eyes. He has no past experience with Kendo but is improving very quickly, even to the point where Yūji thinks Danjuro might surpass him before they graduate. Yūji has even remarked (in one episode of the anime) that Danjūrō "are meant for kendo". Eiga is arguably the smartest member of the Kendo club because he scored 2nd place is the Muroe High School Regional exams for freshman. By the end of the anime series, it is revealed that he is the new captain of the Kendo Club. ; : :Toyama is the school bully and formerly a member of the Kendo Club. He often ditches kendo practice and had caused all the previous club members to quit (with the exception of Kirino and Sayako) by pretending to "teach" them techniques, which was just him constantly hitting them with his shinai. Miyako attempts to teach him and Iwasa a lesson one time, but fails to do so when Sayako crashes into her. It appears that neither Toyama nor Iwasa come to kendo anymore. It is also shown in episodes twenty-two and twenty-three that he and Iwasa are delinquents, as they fought two other students when provoked in a video game arcade and destroyed two machines--an act that almost led to the kendo club's suspension. Although he and Iwasa terrorized the kendo club during their brief time in the club, Toyama actually feels that he is not as strong as he appears, as shown in episode twenty-four of the anime. Eventually both he and Iwasa decide to resign from the club to save it from suspension, even though they both do not hate kendo. Its implied that's he's afraid of Tamaki due to her strength after easily losing to her. In the closing credits of the anime's final episodes, it is shown that he has joined the soccer team with Iwasa, and he is verbally fighting with an opposing player. ; : :Iwasa is Toyama's friend and fellow Kendo Club member, who also ditches practice. Nothing much is known about this character, and he has not been seen with a shinai before in the anime. In the anime it appears that both he and Toyama have dropped kendo, as they no longer come by. Both he and Toyama are delinquents (see above) and have resigned kendo despite their fondness of it (also see above). In the closing credits of the final episode of the anime, he is shown to be on the soccer team with Toyama. ; : :Shinobu wants to join clubs, such as the ping-pong club, lacrosse club, sepak takraw etc., but none of the clubs she likes exist. So in the end, she joins her friend, Makoto, in joining the kendo club. She is impatient and ill-mannered, but her attitude is better than her brother's. Her mother gave her her brother's gear. ; : :Makoto is one of the new freshman members of the kendo club, who turns out to be Iwasa's little brother. He is patient, polite and cool-headed, unlike his brother who is a delinquent. Makoto is a total beginner when it comes to kendo. He was impressed when he observed Tamaki doing kendo, which makes him more motivated to join the kendo club. Makoto's kendo gear was given to him by his brother. ; : :Satori's homeroom teacher, Yoshikawa becomes involved in Muroe's kendo club out of concern for Satori's well-being. When Satori shows that she is capable of balancing kendo with school work, Yoshikawa continues to support the kendo club. She and Kojirō become friends and frequently chat when they are both in the staff room. She is skilled at playing video games. When Kojirō leaves the kendo club, Yoshikawa is requested by the club to become their advisor, which she agrees to do so until she goes on maternity leave. The father of her baby is Kenzaburō, Kojirō's upperclassman. ; ; : :The vice principal of Muroe Highschool. He is seen in episode one when he falls out the school's third floor window. Tamaki saved his life by quickly grabbing a broom nearby and hitting him back up through the window he fell out of. He lends Tamaki his glasses, which she uses under the guise of Bureiba. ; ; : ; ; : Machido High School ; : :Kenzaburō Ishibashi is Kojirō's old senpai and the kendo coach from Machido High School. He was beaten by Kojirō during a kendo meet long ago in their high school years and seems to hold a grudge against him for that, even if it does not seem apparent. Kenzaburō is also jealous of Kojirō's team, particularly because he has Tamaki Kawazoe, a freshman of Muroe High who beat two of his kendo team members in a practice duel one time. Kenzaburō is a more dedicated teacher than Kojirō, but like his kohai he trains his kendo team only for his own personal gain. He is assumed to be married to Yoshikawa-sensei, one of the teachers at Muroe High School and Kojirō's co-worker who was also a temporary advisor to Muroe High's kendo club. ; : :Konatsu Harada, the first third-year student on the team, is the shortest of the five members of the team Kenzaburo chose, and also the shyest. She is rather skilled in kendo as Kenzaburo once remarks that she has a 2-dan rank, is "self-motivated", and comes to practice every day. She is very quiet and can be flustered by some of the things her team, particularly her teacher, does (as shown in one episode of the anime). Konatsu is one of the strongest members on the team, second only to Karen Nishiyama. During a practice match with Muroe High Konatsu, she was beaten by Tamaki Kawazoe. ; : :Maya Yokoo, the second third-year student on the team, is a competitive and tall girl with more team spirit than anyone else in her team. Maya is a bit of a tomboy and tends to speak in a rather aggressive and foul-mouthed manner, calling her teammates "twits" and "dumbasses" when they do not take kendo seriously. However, she will stick up for her teammates when Yūri says cruel things about them (or rather, Akemi), as shown in two episodes of the anime. Apparently she also seems to have a rather large appetite that causes her to eat so much that she ends up with a severe stomachache later on. Tamaki beat Maya during the last round of the practice match with Muroe High, much to the latter's displeasure and shock. ; : :Yūri Andō, the first second-year student on the team, is a girl who seems to zone out most of the time and seems not to care much about winning, but her looks can deceive others greatly. She is rather skilled at kendo and is quite sadistic, like Miyako Miyazaki of Muroe High. Another trait of hers that resembles Miyako's is Yūri's tendency to turn "black" and let some of her true nature show through, which always manages to induce fear in everyone, including her own teammates. (Unlike Miyako, however, Yūri also tends to openly badmouth her teammates, particularly Akemi Asakawa, when they do something that displeases her.) When Yūri is showing her crueler side she is surrounded by a rather eerie black aura that looks rather similar to, if not exactly like, Miyako's "black" aura. Yūri also tends to resort to using nasty methods to win (such as tripping people with her foot, stepping on her opponents' feet, and "harassing" her opponent by showing her "black" aura) and then deny that she has cheated in a falsely sweet manner, much to the chagrin of the other members of her kendo team, who are already rather frustrated with her apparent lack of team spirit. Apparently Yūri has a bit of a sweet tooth, as she once cost her team precious time at a practice match with Muroe High by making them stop at a café so she could "charge" her brain with sugar. She apparently does not function well in the morning. Another one of Yūri's disturbing traits , seen in episode 15, is her ability to sleep with her eyes open. This freaks Tamaki out when she wakes up next to her while at Training Camp. Occasionally she is seen reading a book during important moments (such as kendo matches or team member assignments), a habit that only emphasizes her complete lack of desire to win. ; : :Karen Nishiyama, the third third-year student on the team, is incredibly skilled at kendo, but tends to shake when nervous. When she is cornered in a kendo match she instinctively switches to the offensive, thus effectively beating her opponent. Because of her instinct of going on offense when in trouble Karen is the strongest on her kendo team. Even though she is extremely skilled at kendo, she does not like the idea of fighting an opponent that she does not know in real life, and she will attempt to run away when she is nervous. ; : :Akemi Asakawa, the second second-year student on the team, is probably the most undedicated out of all the members of her team, as she seems only to care about her boyfriend to the point where she will ditch kendo club for her boyfriend. When she encounters a problem with her boyfriend she will not do her best and will only go on the defense; however, when her boyfriend makes up with her she will immediately start pouring out all of her effort, making her a rather formidable opponent. Apparently none of her teammates save for Kenzaburō have any real concern for her, as they simply let her constant ditchings slide (even if she is ditching from a kendo match). Kenzaburō, however, is appalled with her habit of constantly ditching kendo just to meet up with her boyfriend and her lack of effort when she is upset. It is revealed in one episode of the anime that Akemi possesses "excellent footwork". Seimei High School ; : : Tadaaki Hayashi is the coach for the Seimei High School kendo team. He is extremely strict with his students, and verbally and physically punishes them when they lose a match--even if it is against a stronger opponent. His tough training regiments often cause students to quit the kendo team, although he does not regret this, and considers quitters to be weak. After the practice with Muroe High, however, he seems to have changed his outlook on kendo, and is easier on his students, emphasizing the fun and excitement of kendo rather than its harshness and tough work. ; : : Mei is a freshman on the Seimei High School kendo team. She joined the team to be with her friends, although all of them eventually quit until she was the very last freshman girl left on the team. This discourages her, and she desired to quit the kendo team after the practice with Muroe High, but is convinced otherwise when getting fired up after practicing with Tamaki. ; : :A girl who attended the same middle school as Miyako, and became obsessed with her when she beat up a boy who Reimi had a crush on, but who liked Miyako. Since finding out that Miyako joined the kendo club, she follows her to every tournament, taking countless pictures and recording videos of her. Miyako is very disturbed by her stalking, and has lost a few matches due to being distracted by her. ; : ; : ; : ; : ; : Tozyo High School ; : :Konishi is the general of the Tozyo High School team. She is the leader of the kendo team that has a reputation for winning matches through cheating. During the preliminary tournament, her schoolmates locked Tamaki in a shed after tricking her into coming to the parking lot to meet up with her father. There, Konishi got her out and led her to a trap where she injured her ankle after tripping over a bunch of tennis balls that were carefully placed. She was beaten by an enraged Tamaki in her match after receiving a throat strike, but the match was forfeited when Toraji pulled Tamaki out due to her injury. In the closing credits of the anime's final episode, it appears that she has gotten a haircut, and was scolding her classmates, presumably for attempting to cheat again. This suggests that she no longer resorts to cheating to win. ; : ; : ; : ; : Kamazaki High School ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Touryuu High School ; Sakaki is Tamaki's Rival in the manga. Although they have barely met (and the fact that Sakaki quit kendo), it is though to have been "fate" and therefore everyone is hoping for a match between them and consider her Tamaki's only match. She is more or less a replacement for Rin Suzuki in the manga (although Rin has been mentioned), as she takes the role of the one to defeat Tamaki so that Tamaki becomes stronger. Main characters' family ; : : Toraji's father is seen briefly in the anime when he forces his son to work at the family store during his visit. He is a tough man and a hard worker. ; : : Toraji's mother is not seen in the series, but she frequently sends packages of faddish health foods to her son. However, the food is usually insufficient nourishment for the poor Toraji, or of minimal use. She is shown briefly in the anime and forces her son to work at the store when he comes over to visit. ; : :Tamaki's unnamed father is the head of the Kawazoe dojo. He encouraged Tamaki to take up kendo at a very young age, and is therefore responsible for her amazing skill in kendo. Tamaki's father is possibly in his mid-50's as he keeps saying "I'm at an age where I can't even understand Tama-chan anymore" in one episode of the anime. That said, he is in practice a kind, loving, considerate and doting father who merely lacks articulate skills and confidence to express his affections for Tamaki. He constantly worries every time Tamaki brings up Yūji, mistakenly believing that he and Tamaki are seeing each other, to the point he spies on them at training camp to make sure nothing is happening and constantly frowning or making an angry face whenever Yūji's name is brought up. ; :Tamaki's mother, who died when Tamaki was very young. Tamaki has only a few memories of her mother, but greatly respects her and remembers that her mother was amazingly talented at kendo. She seemed to have been fond of the high stance, and Tamaki becomes distracted whenever an opponent uses it against her. ; : : Kirino's mother helps run the family's deli. She collapses from exhaustion in the middle of the series, which causes Kirino to become distressed and more withdrawn, although her seriousness improved her skills in kendo. In the middle of a match, however, her brother yelled out to her that their mother was all right, in which she immediately lost focus--and the match. ; ; ; ; : ; : ; : Kawazoe douzyou pupil ; : :Sakaguchi is the owner of the kendo equipment shop that Kojirō takes his kendo team to for purchasing equipment. While Sakaguchi's kendo skills are only seen in a series of flashbacks in the anime, it is apparent that he is incredibly skilled at kendo, strong enough to make all of the members of Kojirō's team complain about him. He has a fondness for mochi, although Kojirō's kendo team tends to eat all of Sakaguchi's mochi during their visits to his shop. He is also, as Kojirō puts it, "very competitive". ; Others ; : ; : ; ; : ; ; : :Considered to be the mascot character of Bamboo Blade, the Cat appears in every episode in the background or even seen interacting with the other characters. In Episode 25, two characters mention that the Gray cat that appears in the episode is a rare cat that only appears every 25 episodes. ; : ; : ; : :An anime-only character, Carrie is an American girl raised in Japan with a loud and pushy attitude. She becomes Miyako's rival for Dan's affections since Carrie finds that he resembles her pet armadillo, Anderson. After seeing a samurai movie as a child, she has always wanted to fight with two swords. As such, she is a strong opponent capable of using the two-sword style of kendo, despite high school competitions prohibiting the use of the two sword technique. Because Carrie has considerably more experience than the novice Miyako, Miyako trains especially hard to defeat Carrie. In the 25th episode, she finally defeats Carrie in a match, and later goes on to defeat her again with Carrie using the two-sword style. ; : :Rin is fond of the "Super Sentai Blade Braver" like Tamaki but she prefers Shinaider (which sort of an enemy) more than the Blade Bravers. Rin and Tamaki first meet during a live action performance, where Red Braver had a guest appearance, and participate in a fan-quiz for the prize of limited edition Blade Braver dolls, which Rin wins. Later, they work together in the new Blade Braver movie; the girls become friends and rivals because of their mutual interest the Braver series and their strength in kendo. She is the strongest opponent that Tamaki has ever seen and the first person to defeat Tamaki, using the ascension stance to do so. However, she is defeated by Tamaki at the same tournament where Kojirō defeated Kenzaburō nine years ago. ; : Bamboo Blade characters ja:BAMBOO BLADEの登場人物